Iran’s nuclear menace

Western leaders must make renewed efforts to see sanctions intensified.

The report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into Iran’s nuclear programme has for the first time acknowledged that Tehran is conducting secret experiments whose sole purpose is the development of weapons. This means the regime can no longer credibly sustain the fiction that it is engaged in a civil nuclear programme. Only the most gullible observers of Iran’s ambitions in the region can have swallowed this story. Indeed, the IAEA has known for years that Tehran was building an atomic weapon, but has been reluctant to say so. This has made it more difficult to create a united front against the threat that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose to world peace. Where previous reports have been ambivalent, this assessment is to the point. “The agency has serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear programme,” it states. “Credible... information indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device.”

So what happens now? The expectation of this report had already triggered a host of bellicose warnings, with suggestions that plans were being laid for armed intervention. In Israel, even Shimon Peres, the doveish president, said he thought a diplomatic solution was now less likely than a military one, though Ehud Barak, the defence minister, has played down the talk of war. None the less, a serious crisis is looming at a time when Western leaders are preoccupied with economic difficulties. They must focus attention on this tinderbox region and seek a new international consensus to intensify the sanctions on Iran. While the threat of military action cannot be ruled out, the next step must be taken through the United Nations – and this time it must be a decisive one.